


Meow

by violet_sunflowers



Series: Peter Parker: The Gen Z Chronicles [11]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Cute Peter Parker, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Parent Tony Stark, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Tony Stark, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:48:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26606263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/violet_sunflowers/pseuds/violet_sunflowers
Summary: Peter's been hiding something. But Tony doesn't even know he's hiding anything. Until he finds out and he can't help but love his kid even more.
Relationships: May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Peter Parker: The Gen Z Chronicles [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1749952
Comments: 6
Kudos: 159





	Meow

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic from Tony's point of view. I hope it feels natural. Also I think that this is probably the cutest thing I've written so far.
> 
> Also there's a mentioned of some anxiety in this, but it's based of my own experience with anxiety which is pretty mild.

Tony Stark was a genius. This was a fact, plain and simple. This could be proven with the fact that he graduated from college at an age that most had just started it, or just by looking at his AI's. This could be shown with he fact that he had made both the original Ironman suit and the original arc reactor in a cave with limited resources while also building a fake weapon. 

One would think that being that smart, he would also be observant and quick to catch things out of the ordinary. Pepper would tell you otherwise.

She would tell you about how he missed an entire birthday cake baking in the oven the day before his birthday. Or the time that the team decided to just plan his suprise party in his own living room without really trying to hide it. She would tell you about the wording on contracts, not even in the fine print that went over his head.

But the biggest instance of this was with Peter.

Tony hears the volume time down, a tell-tale sign that Peter had arrived. He was excited. He had spent all week working on a few update ideas he could work together with Peter on. 

"Hey kid," he said not turning around. He was nearly done and he didn't want to lose his place.

"Hi Mr Stark, what's up," Peter said from behind. Tony could practically hear the pep in his step. 

"I have a new model of web-shooters that I want you to try. They have some form fitting padding around the wrist which should both make it more comfortable for you, but also keep it from slipping even more," Tony answered.

"Ooohhhh," Peter said picking the finished one up.

"I've got a few other things we can work on this weekend, but they're all web/web-shooters heavy, that alright," Tony asked. While the kid seemed to like anything they did he never wanted Peter to dread working on something.

"Sounds good, you barley touch them so they probably have a few bugs in then I haven't found," Peter said with a smile and shrug. 

"For now just work on your homework and then we can make a gameplan," Tony told him.

Tony looked back to his work focusing intently on it before noticing the kid fidgeting more than usual. 

"Kid, you alright," he asked concerned.

"Yeah, don't worry about it Mr Stark," Peter said.

"Is your anxiety acting up again," Mr Stark asked.

It had taken a while for him to catch on to the kids anxiety. It wasn't severe, he didn't have any massive tells. But he still wanted to make sure that the kid understood that having anxiety wasn't anything to be ashamed of and that if he needed anything to help him with it then all he had to do was ask. Tony also tried to make sure to keep the lab very lax and stress free around him. The kid still hadn't fully come to terms with it, but he was making progress.

"I guess," Peter said shyly.

"Why don't you go up for a snack, go for a quick walk around the tower and relax for a bit," Tony suggested.

"Sounds good Mr Stark, I'll be back soon," Peter said looking relieved.

Peter told him that sometimes he just wanted to be alone when he got like this, and Tony was more than happy to give him excuses to be alone. The kid never took too long either. Maybe 10 minutes at the most.

Which is why when Peter hadn't returned 30 minutes later he got concerned.

"Are you good Peter," Tony asked upon his return.

"Yeah, sorry Mr Stark, I just needed a bit longer," Peter said sheepishly.

Over the next few weeks Peter started taking more time and taking more walks around the tower. And the tower had gotten a bit weird as of late. And weirdest of all he stopped patrolling on Monday's.

Several times Tony had been getting up to go to the washroom and he swears that he saw something jump across the hallway. 

He's found toy mice and heard things get knocked around. But no one's confessed to anything.

Peter was over for his usual Friday night and had decided to take a minute. 

Except it was more than a minute, it had been an hour already.

"Fri, where's Peter," he asked checking the time.

"Peter is currently on the 53rd floor," she responds.

The 53rd floor, that wasn't right. That floor was unused. Why would he be there.

"Do you know why he's there," Tiny asked concerned.

"It appears as though Snowball was in a fight with Whiskers," she told him.

Tony did a double take. Who was Snowball and Whiskers. And why were they fighting. And more importantly, why were they in the tower. 

He marched towards the elevator determined to figure it out.

"53rd floor Fri, and don't tell Peter I'm coming," he said.

"Informing Peter now," Friday said.

"No no no, I said not to inform Peter that I'm coming," Tony said quickly. 

"Due to my programming I'm obligates to tell Mini-boss about you're arrival," she told him.

Tony wrinkled his brow, when had he programmed that. 

Finally the elevator doors slid open and to his suprise he found Peter waiting for him. 

"Hi Mr Stark, to the lab then," Peter said nonchalantly.

"Nope, I need to see what's going on here, Friday said some people were fighting on this floor who I don't think are even authorized to be here," Tony said firmly while stepping out of the elevator.

"Mr Stark it's nothing, really," Peter said gently grabbing onto his mentors arm in an attempt to drag him back to the elevator.

Tony was about to turn around when he heard meowing coming from further down the hall.

He hurried his steps towards the common room on the floor.

When he pushed open the door he found a mess of cat litters and food and bowls in various stages of fullness. There were toys scattered across the floor.

But most shocking of all was the dozen or so cats lounging around the room. There were black ones, white ones calico cats and tabby cats. There were even a few smaller kittens.

"Peter," Tony said slowly.

"Why are there a bunch of cats in my tower."

"I can explain Mr Stark, I swear I can," Peter said desperately.

"Then I guess you'd better start explaining," Tony said sternly.

"Well, about a month ago I found this car right. And it was cold and looked hungry so I brought it here and convinced Friday not to tell you and I gave it a quick bath and see food. Then I had Friday look up for any lost cats and she found her owner a few days later. But I already had Friday order cat things so I picked up a few other cats to make sure that nothing went to waste, except it became a cycle ya know. And then I found a lost dog who took a few days to return too, so...," Peter said looking at him with those warm brown eyes of his.

Tony felt his heart melt. This kid. He just wanted to help lost animals fin e their homes. So he set up a mini-shelter to keep them in.

"Where are the dogs," Tony asked realizing he didn't see any around.

"One floor down, I didn't want them to get too aggressive with the cats," Peter explained.

Tony smiled and shook his head.

Suddenly a gorgeous grey cat jumped onto Peter.

"Hey Nebula," Peter cooed.

He turned towards his mentor.

"She's a stray that I picked up a while ago. She doesn't really like any of the others cats very much, but she loves me," he explained.

"How did you come up with the name," Tony's said smiling at the way the cat snuggled against Peter.

"Friday did a scan she she thinks that she's a Nebelung cat but when she said it I heard nebulous cat at first so I named her Nebula," he said gently scratching her behind the ears. 

"She really seems to like you kid," Tony's said watching as the cat started falling asleep on his shoulders.

"I think it might just be people that she likes," he said absentmindedly stroking her fur.

"Maybe," Tony said not really believing it. He had watched the Baby Monitor footage enough to know that dogs that didn't like people absolutely loved Peter. 

"Here, she loves it when I stroke her ears, why don't you give it a go," he suggested.

Tony approached Peter and gently placed his hand on her head. But the instant his hand touched her she opened her eyes and hissed at him.

But thankfully another cat caught on and nuzzled his legs. The cat was a rich dark brown color and started purring. 

"Oh, that's Coffee, her owners are coming to pick her up tomorrow. She's really sweet. She's the only one that Nebula plays with, well, that I've seen.

Tony bent down and picked up the appropriately named Coffee.

"Kid, as much as I love what you're doing here, we can't just house every lost and stray cat that you find on the streets," he explained gently.

"But I'm paying for everything and I'm making sure that they're cared for. I've got Friday keeping an eye on them with a bunch of protocols and stuff," Peter pleaded. 

"What do you mean you're paying for everything, I thought you said Friday was ordering everything," Tony asked confused. 

"Peter has a job and has requested that all his earnings be transferred to you're bank account. He is currently several hundred dollars in debt however based on the supplies he already has and how many of them are just a one-time purchase he should be able to pay it all back and be making a profit within a few months," Friday supplied helpfully.

"Friday," Peter exclaimed.

"Pete, kid, you know I don't mind paying for things for you right, you don't have to pay me back, ever," Tony said.

"Friday repay Peter everything he's given to me and block him from giving me any money from now on," he said looking up at the ceiling.

"But it's not me that this is for, you shouldn't have to pay for it all," Peter protested.

"Kid, it's fine. And I don't like the idea of you paying me for anything. I've got mountains of money and here you are in debt to me, I won't have it kid," Tony said shaking his head.

"So, does this mean I can keep the cats here for now," Peter asked hopefully.

"No can do, but I think I know what we can do," Tony said stroking his goutee. 

"Stark Industries is accepting applications from all no kill shelters starting tomorrow. The grant will be for seventy thousand dollars and on top of that some new tech that should make it easier to find lost cats and dogs families," Tony announced a few months later at a press conference.

Already he had been making anonymous donations to as many no-kill shelters that Peter could find.

The grant would be more of a formal thing and make it easier to get money in the hands of shelters that really cared about the animals.

He looked at Peter in the front who was smiling widely. 

After he had caught him with all the cats and dogs they had donated the spare litters and beds, toys. Basically anything they didn't need to the shelter down the street that Friday had verified took very good care of the animals. 

Except one. 

Nebula it turned out absolutely loved Peter. When they had dropped off all the animals at the real shelter both Peter and Nebula had cried when they left each other. Tony had spent the better part of an hour trying to cheer him up. 

But Tony did some thinking. He watched back the footage from the 2 floors to see how Peter had taken care of them. He had done an excellent job. Peter had taken out the dogs as often as he could and replaced the litter and fed them all appropriately. He had made sure that any puppies and kittens were put together and by an older female to be taken care of.

In the end after talking to May, they had both agreed that Peter was responsible enough and had gone and picked up Nebula from the shelter after signing the adoption papers. 

He smiled at the memory of Peter coming to the tower to find Nebula on his bed. The two had spent the afternoon together eventually falling asleep together. And now Tony often walked into Peter's room in the mornings to find that Nebula had hopped into bed with Peter. 

His cute pictures of Peter file had grown exponentially since adopting Nebula.

After the press conference he changed into his sweats and found Peter and Nebula on the couch with a bowl of snacks and a blanket ready for movie night. 

He couldn't imagine a better night. Him with his kid and the kids cat. Pepper was the only one missing but he knew that she would he asking Friday for some pictures of tonight..

The 3 or them fell asleep on the couch that night dreaming sweetly.


End file.
